Chapter Twenty-Three
▲
What was that about growth mindset?
Wolfe
Officially, I’m living the dream. Amia is happy. Leora is happy. They’re both with me, and happy.
Well, metaphorically with me, anyway. In reality, Amia is in her room going to sleep, and Leora is at her house across town, way too far for comfort.
I wish she were here. Downstairs. Waiting for me, so that the moment Amia falls asleep, I could go downstairs and sit in Sterne’s booth and watch a violet-haired goddess fish ice out of empty cups and smile at me like…
I inhale, watch my chest rise, then exhale, and watch it deflate.
She smiles at me like she smiles at Amia, I realize. With love and amusement and a deep well of care.
I want her here, so badly my chest aches at the knowledge that she is not.
I curse.
Then, I remember that she isn’t words on a page anymore. I have her phone number, and I’m supposed to be asking for what I want, under her directive. Not only can I text her, asking her to come to the bar, but I should text her, asking her to come to the bar.
I’m a changing man, for the better. I’m carving my path.
I’m texting the woman I love, and not just hoping she shows up, but expecting that she will, because when I ask for what I want, my life is better.
Because what I want is Leora, and she will always make my life better.
She texts back quickly, and I mark a con off my list all by myself.
Darling Starling: Be there in thirty.